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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pope Francis has organized a soccer match on Sept. 1 to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The exhibition game will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Rome with \"all-star players,\" including Lionel Messi&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;Diego Maradona. The JTA reports that Francis called both Messi and Maradona - fellow Argentines - personally to ask them to&amp;nbsp;\u201Cplay for the peace between Israel and Palestine.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Israel is currently engaged in hostilities with Hamas, a militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. Through Aug. 8, according to &lt;em&gt;The New York Times&lt;/em&gt;, 1,881 Palestinians and 67 Israelis had died in the fighting.&amp;nbsp;Time.com&amp;nbsp;has further coverage of the conflict, which began July 8.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More:&amp;nbsp;Transfer Tracker: The major moves across Europe&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On his Facebook page, Maradona posted, \"It is an honour to be invited by Pope&amp;nbsp;#Francis, to participate in the Interreligious Match for Peace, on September 1st, at the Olimpic Stadium of Rome.\"\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The match is being hosted by&amp;nbsp;the Pupi Foundation and the&amp;nbsp;Pontifical Academy for Social Science. The JTA report notes that players from a number of countries around the world will participate, including Israel's&amp;nbsp;Yossi Benayoun.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;- Sarah Barshop&lt;/em&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2014/08/12/pope-francis-soccer-peace-israel-palestine>